Writing the letter: notice to a contractor who has stopped work
The letter is not where you win the argument. It is where you show, later, that you gave the company every chance and said exactly what you needed.
Where this comes from
My project record
I am a customer, not a lawyer, and the right letter depends on your contract and your facts. What follows is the structure I put together from the contract, public guidance and the advice I have been given, and the mistakes to avoid. Have a North Carolina construction attorney read yours before it goes out.
Before you write
- Read the contract for any notice, cure or termination clause and follow it exactly.
- Assemble the dates: contract, payments, inspections, the last day the crew was on site, every promise of a return date.
- Decide what you actually want: completion by a date, a refund of specific amounts, or both.
The outline
- Heading: your name and address, the company’s legal name and address, the date, the contract number. Mine would cite Sales Order Contract ODR-001094.
- One sentence stating the purpose: notice that the company is not performing under the contract.
- The facts in order, each with a date and, where possible, a document: signed, paid, footings failed, poured, crew arrived, work stopped, payment requested.
- The contract terms involved, quoted briefly: the completion payment “due upon building completion,” the final-inspection correction clause, the lift agreement by text.
- What you require and by when: a crew on site by a date, a completion date, correction of specific items, return of specific amounts.
- What you will do if that does not happen, stated plainly and without threats: pursue the remedies available to you, including filing with the licensing board and the Attorney General and seeking legal advice.
- A reservation of rights, which your attorney will word.
- A list of enclosures: photos, the Balance Breakdown, the texts.
Tone
Write it as if it will be read aloud to a judge who has never met either of you, because it may be. No adjectives about the company, no insults, no all-caps. Dates and documents do the work. The angrier the situation, the calmer the letter.
How to send it
Certified mail with return receipt to the address on the contract, plus email to every address the company has used with you. Keep the receipt, the tracking page and the sent email. Note the date it was delivered on your timeline.
What not to do
- Do not make legal conclusions you cannot support, such as calling the company unlicensed before the licensing board has confirmed it.
- Do not threaten anything you would not do.
- Do not negotiate by text afterward without keeping the thread.
- Do not send another payment while the letter is outstanding without advice.
Why a customer wrote this
In February 2026 I signed a $98,750 contract with L&G Building & Concrete of Asheboro, North Carolina. By September I had a cracked slab, damaged plumbing and half a steel frame. This site documents it, with the contract, photos, texts and public records. The resources exist so the next buyer does not need to learn the same things the same way.
General information from one customer’s experience and research. Not legal, engineering or financial advice.